wilderness, separated by many long miles of forests from
Massachusetts Bay, they determined to arrange their own affairs
without reference to any outside authority. They set up a
government on May 1, 1637, and the next year, under the
leadership of such men as Thomas Hooker, John Haynes, who had
once been Governor of Massachusetts Bay, and Roger Ludlow, who
had had some legal training, this government, made up of deputies
from each of the three little settlements, drafted eleven
"Fundamental Orders." These "Fundamental Orders" were not a
written constitution, but a series of laws very much like those
of the colonies of Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay. There is a
tradition that they were read to the people and adopted by them
in the Hartford Meetihg-House on January 14, 1639.

Connecticut continued under this form of government, which she
had decided upon for herself, for more than twenty years--until
after the civil war in England was over. Then, when royalty was
restored and Charles the Second became king, in 1660, the people
feared that they might lose something of the independence they
had learned to love and value, and they sent their governor, John
Winthrop, to England to get from the king a charter to confirm
their "privileges and liberties."

Winthrop was a man who had had a university education in England
and the advantages of travel on the continent of Europe. He had a
good presence and courteous manners. Best of all, he had powerful
friends at court. There is a story that in an audience with the
king he returned to him a ring which the king's father, Charles
the First, had given to Winthrop's grandfather, and that the king
was so pleased with this that he was willing to sign the charter